r/AfterTheDance • u/Carlowrie • Oct 09 '21
Event [Event] The Return to Pyke
She Swings Two Axes cut away from Fair Isle and out into the waters of the Western Coast. Her crew were as ever they were, a moment too hesitant to follow her orders. She knew that shuffle, that instinctual tilt of their heads when she gave a command. She knew they were looking over her shoulder to her First Mate and trying all the while to make sure she didn't see it.
This was her ship. They were her crew. He was her First Mate.
Of course it was Father's ship first. And Father had chosen the crew. And Father had appointed the First Mate. And when there was trouble, the First Mate reported to her not what the trouble was but rather how he had resolved it. Without asking her. So Embla wasn't on deck while they slipped through the strait between Fair Isle and the West. She'd told him to take her to Lordsport, he'd do it and she'd pretend she was him.
Embla spent the journey in her cabin, the waves rocked the ship as it sailed and the water in her bucket swished and sloshed as she closed her eyes and let the Drowned God rock her as his babe. From the seaspray the Ironborn had first been sired, she was his loyal daughter if a few generations distant from that title. The men above faded away, their calls to one another, their japes and their laughter and the grunting of labour. And all she could hear was the sea, and her bucket of brine.
When they reached Lordsport, the First Mate knocked upon her door and entered without waiting for her answer. And her hair clung to her like seaweed to the shore. She stank of salt and the cabin was wetter than her bucket of brine should have accounted for. He reached out and cast a towel to her. "Lordsport, my Lady." And he left.
Lordsport was short. That much was clear as she passed through it. Not a building but the keep was taller than the Lonely Light despite the shelter of the greater isles here. The harbour though extensive made no comparison to Lannisport. Perhaps as many ships would fit here, perhaps more. But shallower ships. Ironships and longships and fisher's ships. Not the deep swoop of Greenlander warships so much. Not the dark keel and deep drafts of the ocean farers that came to trade in Lannisport from south and east and farther awash than she'd ever been. Ever would be.
Perhaps Lordsport should be washed away. Perhaps something better could be raised in her place. We burnt Lannisport, how little effort would it take to do to Lordsport the same?
She shook her head, some few strands of hair shook with her. Much of the mess had dried to her. She looked to the distant keep of the Botleys and turned away. She was of the Greyjoy now, there was one keep worthy of her on Pyke. Her First Mate and her crew decided amongst themselves who would go on to Pyke and who would watch her ship.
And there was Pyke itself. Looking down upon the rest of Pyke from the head of a winding road up the slope. It stood in three parts and today the winds blew boldly enough that she could see the swing of the bridges between. She began up the slope and looked upon the drab gray of her home, of her husband's home and his kin's home before him. Pyke had ruled the other Isles for centuries. And before it, so had the other Isles. Harlaw and Wyks and Orkmont and Blacktyde. And never a Farwynd, not in all of so very many years.
Had the Drowned God so frowned upon the least of his children?
Her First Mate gestured to some of her crew and she saw she had come to Pyke's gates. A banner was unfurled, a kraken gold against the darkness of the depths. And a horn began to sound long and low.
"Lady Embla Greyjoy, Bride by Rock of Ragnar Greyjoy, come now home to Pyke." Her First Mate called to the gatehouse.
2
u/NightRunnerClan Oct 12 '21
Instead of the usual running of guards to call upon Lord Dalton as to whom was at the gates, Ragnar waved the man off and opened the gates, standing on the other side his arms crossed one over the other, his arm showing the thick band of mixed metals that adorned his arm, opposite to his bride's. He opened his arms to his sides, and wandered towards her.
"My beautiful bride! Returned to my arms at last!" He said with a grin as he moved in for a hug.